Lech Photo Sessions: 2005-2013

[AnneGirl]

Originally Posted by princess leonor

No English was spoken. Maxima spoke spanish with the girls, and said Mommy is here in Dutch not English. I just love it when she speaks spanish with the girls. Especially when she asked Alexia if she wanted to go 'abajo con Ama'. So cute

yeah I love it that the girls are spoken to in both dutch and spanish! and I now know some spanish words too!

[carlota]

and now we know maxima calls amalia "ama", so sweet, although i love the complete name. sounds wonderful and so regal. i keep thinking they made a wonderful choice for the heir's name.

indeed, maxima does speak in english in the video. its about at the first part, when alexia is picked up by daddy and she calls "mama".

[Maxie]

Maxima definitely is not speaking english. She said 'mama is hier' which happens to sound almost the same as 'mommy is here', since 'hier' and 'here' are pronounced in the same way.

I really loved the pictures and I was glad to see Constantijn, Laurentien and the kids too! Thanks for sharing, all!

[Her_Majesty]

Originally Posted by Maxie

Maxima definitely is not speaking english. She said 'mama is hier' which happens to sound almost the same as 'mommy is here', since 'hier' and 'here' are pronounced in the same way.

It indeed sounds really similar to the english pronounciation!
Honestly, when I first saw the video I thought Máxima was speaking German .
"Mama is hier!" (dutch) sounds very similar to "Mama ist hier." (German) ...
The sentence sounds so similar in all 3 languages...

[amina1]

Does anyone know if they mentioned before what language do communicate to their kids? ENG & DUTCH

[corazon]

Originally Posted by amina1

Does anyone know if they mentioned before what language do communicate to their kids? ENG & DUTCH

the princes of orange talk with the girls in spanish, dutch and english

[princess olga]

Originally Posted by AnneGirl

no she didn't, or I'm deaf! I really don't think she said that, I even checked twice before responding! you tell me when you heard her saying I'm right here in the video..
seriously I didn;t hear a word of english. except when someone shouted the word party to stop alexia from crying, lol

Well, maybe her "Ik ben hier/mammie is hier" came across to some as being English as Maxima's "rr" sound sometimes seems to be similar to the type the well-heeled folks around Wassenaar tend to deploy (Dutchies here, you all get my drift )

I think there's something infinitely more impressive here, though, than Maxima chatting in her native Spanish with her girls.

And it's, I think, the fact that you (if you're Dutch) can really tell from what she says in Dutch in the interview (and how she says it) that she really uses that language all thoughout her daily life. She's using colloquials (sp) from that language that she'd only know by really "living" that language day in and out.
And, no, that's not a given in her case. Not at all: For example, it is known that for example Monaco's Prince consort Gracia's French was notoriously bad, although it improved a bit over the years to be fair. But not to the level of where Maxima's Dutch already is today (even if she still makes mistakes here and there--it IS a difficult language to master).

Kudo's to Maxima, in other words, of her grasp of Dutch!

[AnneGirl]

Originally Posted by Maxie

Maxima definitely is not speaking english. She said 'mama is hier' which happens to sound almost the same as 'mommy is here', since 'hier' and 'here' are pronounced in the same way.

I really loved the pictures and I was glad to see Constantijn, Laurentien and the kids too! Thanks for sharing, all!

yes, hier definately sounds like here, thats why english speaking people will think it's english, and only dutch people (or maybe german people too) will hear that she really was speaking dutch, not english. hier may sound like here, it really isn't the same. there's a slightly different tone to it.

[AnneGirl]

Originally Posted by corazon

the princes of orange talk with the girls in spanish, dutch and english

I'm sorry, but I'm getting a little frustrated, can;t you read the previous posts? she really wasn;t speaking english. and it's not just you, there are others too who keep claiming that they heard maxima speak english. but she really didn;t. come on, trust us dutchies on this, we should know!!

[Princess Maxima]

Ok. So Máxima speaks spanish&dutch to the girls and Willem-Alexander in dutch... but in which language do Máxima&W-A talk to each other?English or Dutch?

[Henri M.]

Originally Posted by Princess Maxima

Ok. So Máxima speaks spanish&dutch to the girls and Willem-Alexander in dutch... but in which language do Máxima&W-A talk to each other?English or Dutch?

Dutch, Spanish and English.
Also the Prince can understand Spanish very well, and speak it more or less.

[carlota]

oh, now we solved the mistery of that phrase being similar in english and dutch....

i remember seeing a video long time ago (the famous stolen video of willem and maxima's argentinian visit) where maxima was talking to amalia in spanish while getting her hair done. she was saying something like "donde esta la bebita linda de mama?" (where's mommy's cute little girl?)... thought it was really cute.

[TLLK]

Originally Posted by Henri M.

Dutch, Spanish and English.
Also the Prince can understand Spanish very well, and speak it more or less.

Very impressive that the family is having their children raised to be multi-lingual. Do they employ Spanish speaking nannies?

There are quite a few Spanish speakers among European royalty besides the Spanish royal family. Queen Fabiola, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa and Princess Maxima are three native speakers who have married into families where Spanish is not the primary language.

[The Watcher]

And an other video: Story

[Henri M.]

Originally Posted by TLLK

Very impressive that the family is having their children raised to be multi-lingual. Do they employ Spanish speaking nannies?

Yes, the Prince of Orange and Princess Máxima do employ staff at Villa De Eikenhorst but their nationality is not known. To me it looks looks logical that the nannies are native Dutch speakers with Spanish as a second language. After all Princess Catharina-Amalia needs to develop excellent Dutch language.

But the royal family is known with this concept. For the 604 years that the Orange-Nassaus are in the Netherlands, the Stadtholders, Princes, Fürsts, Kings or Queens have never ever been married to a Dutchman or -woman. So bilinguality must be in their genes.

[AnneGirl]

Originally Posted by TLLK

Very impressive that the family is having their children raised to be multi-lingual. Do they employ Spanish speaking nannies?

I actually think they do. I don't know if they're native speakers, but the nannies do speak spanish. I thought they were native speakers, but I'm not sure

[ahtikavalentine]

Originally Posted by Henri M.

Dutch, Spanish and English.
Also the Prince can understand Spanish very well, and speak it more or less.

He has said that he learns with Amalia

[ahtikavalentine]

Originally Posted by carlota

oh, now we solved the mistery of that phrase being similar in english and dutch....

i remember seeing a video long time ago (the famous stolen video of willem and maxima's argentinian visit) where maxima was talking to amalia in spanish while getting her hair done. she was saying something like "donde esta la bebita linda de mama?" (where's mommy's cute little girl?)... thought it was really cute.

I would like to see that video

[princess olga]

Originally Posted by TLLK

Very impressive that the family is having their children raised to be multi-lingual. Do they employ Spanish speaking nannies?

There are quite a few Spanish speakers among European royalty besides the Spanish royal family. Queen Fabiola, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa and Princess Maxima are three native speakers who have married into families where Spanish is not the primary language.

Plus the other way around, like Dutch princess Irene, Beatrix's sister. Irene was married to a Spanish prince, Carlos Hugo of Bourbon PArma I believe, an heir to the Spanish throne. (he didn't end up landing the throne because a different family did, the one that dictator Franco prefered if I'm not mistaken) Their four kids speak Spanish fluently, among a slew of other languages. Most recently one of these kids, Jaime, was named godfather of his cousin Prince Friso's youngest daughter, Zaria (still follow?
Back on the topic of Lech, my hunch why the Friso branch of the family wasn't there has to have to do with Mabel's work. She probably couldn't make the time away from her high-level job. At the baptism of her daughter recently, she looked absolutely exhausted, the poor thing. The one who really could use a nice vacation!

[princess olga]

Originally Posted by Henri M.

the 604 years that the Orange-Nassaus are in the Netherlands

604 years with a few, well, let us say, Oranje-breakes in between (during some of which the Republiek did just fine being a republic, thank you very much!)